A person or nation that colonizes; someone who establishes or participates in establishing colonies in new territories.
From 'colonize' + '-er' (agent noun suffix). American spelling; British English uses 'coloniser.' Became standard in the 17th-18th centuries.
In postcolonial studies, scholars and activists have deliberately foregrounded 'the colonizer'—not to glorify them, but to examine how colonial power actually worked, who benefited, and how colonialist attitudes persist even after formal colonialism ended.
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